I sold my apartment in Stockholm and moved to London in June to do a summer internship at an American bank in the City. The firm paid for dinners every night, so money-wise, eating sashimi and fruits everyday was not a problem. The problem with implementing the wai diet without sipping juice all the time, however, is that work requires you to eat lunch, dinner and really nothing in between, making energy management more difficult. There was nothing stopping me from bringing fruits to the desk and sipping oil - but I was too weak to stand up for myself and I didn't want people asking questions about supposedly 'strange' food habits. I admire you guys for not caring what people think - I'm still afraid of people judging me for not eating or acting like everybody else, especially in a macho-macho industry that is investment banking. The 90-hour weeks also took their toll, and not going to bed until 2-3 in the morning every day increased my cravings for much foods to the extent that I gained a lot of weight during the summer (bringing my BMI over 20 for the first time). Another effect of being on the wai diet is that I look significantly younger now than I did before I started the whole thing. People said I looked like eighteen, and I had to struggle to make them realise how qualified I was for the job. I'm guessing this may be connected with low testosterone levels - could this perhaps be caused by a too-low intake of yolks and sashimi?
After my stint in London, I flew to India to study on an exchange program and travel around. I had never been to Asia before, but it was a big shock and a wonderful experience, at the same time. The Indian food is very oily, and so spicy it makes your head spin. I don't know much about biochemistry, but these spices must be addictive and affect our nerve systems, no? I spoke to a guy on a train in Madya Pradesh who kept eating powder from a small plastic bag. It turns out he ate Masala spices as a snack, giving no energy - but a rush? Otherwise, I was amazed by the sheer amount of fruits available in India. I had lots of fun walking in fruit markets with a swiss army knife and just savour the different (super-ripe!) fruits available. In the campus cantine, I had amazing watermelon or pineapple juice each morning, which tasted nothing like it does back home - it was more of a deeper, sweet and savoury taste. The mangos, hell even the bananas were amazing. I keep thinking that the way they treat the fruits sold in Europe (picked when they're not riped and then transported for a long time) is not really ideal. I met a guy in Kerala that came from the province of Goa and he told me how they traditionally used raw egg yolk combined with sugar as an all-purpose medicine, a cure that dated back to the pre-colonial era. Anyhow, apart from the spices, all Indian food is very oily, which at least makes the energy management a bit easier. The quality of the oil is another matter, however, and it seemed to me that they reused old oil over and over again to save money. The coconut oil available in the southern regions of Kerala and Tamil Nadu was amazingly sweet and good-tasting, and I had a bottle with me most of the times if I needed oil to balance otherwise sugary food.
After India I went back for Christmas and then directly to China and southeast asia for some travelling by myself before starting to work full-time. I had a hard time finding good food, at least in the northern provinces where everything seemed to be deep-fried and spiced up with MSG. After consulting my dictionary, I learned how to pronounce the mandarin word for MSG, which at least saved my body from dealing with glutamate when ordering noodles. For that reason, I was pleasantly surprised that in Hong Kong, people have become very conscious about the dangers of MSG, to the extent that many restaurants use it as a unique selling point for health-conscious professionals. While travelling in the inner parts of China, I was invited by a Chinese family to live with them for a few days in their house, during which I, out of gratitute, chose to eat everything they ate, including yak-milk and a variety of pig's organs. They even gave me their finest chop-sticks they had to show respect for the friendly westerner. To this date, I don't know what I ate there since only the son spoke English, and he didn't know the words for the kind of food we ate. Again, everybody said I look young - very young. When I said I just graduated, they always said - oh, from high school? But I guess that will benefit me when I'm older - looking 30 even though your well in your 40s.
I then travelled southwards to Thailand and Malaysia where all-abundant, and coconut milk seems to be used in every kind of dish available. It's easy to become accustomed to fresh fruit juices and not having to juice everything yourself - I could live with it! In Songhkla in southern Thailand, they even put oil in the juice. It was probably sunflower oil or something similar of low quality but still - I was like 'Yes, yes - that's the spirit!'
. In the archipelago south of Koh Chang in Thailand, we discovered an island that was called Koh Wai (the Wai island) and absolutely beautiful. Again, the beginning of the mango season has just started and I was pleased to be able to buy super-ripe mango again in Malaysia and Singapore.I'm starting to work full-time in London in a few days and am a bit apprehensive about getting back 100%, even though I really want to look and feel the way I did when I ate according to the wai diet. You have to get your room-mates and your new work-colleagues to accept your habits and make time to 'squeeze that juice'. I'm starting to realise that it's all in my head (people don't really care), that I should get these limiting beliefs out of my head and just get on with it. Finding room-mates, colleagues and a girl-friend all on the wai diet themselves, that would be something. I'm still dreaming about the idea that someone came up with on this board, that we should buy an island (maybe Koh Wai?) and start a small Wai community, living in harmony with the nature, eating fruits and living like we're supposed to do. Maybe a few years down the line, or perhaps I'm just dreaming to much...
Recent photo from northern Thailand
